Environment & Energy

After a major hurricane near our home in Florida the power was out for a week or more. This was when cell phones were becoming popular and we noticed the cell phones would not work after a few days with no power even if fully charged. The problem was that there was a battery back up powered dohickie ( sorry for the tech term) that had to work and the back up batteries could not charge with no power. The phone company started putting gas generators at the base of the poles to power these whatever they ares and predictably people stole the generators. They chained the generators to the poles and people stole the generators and the chains.
Some years later we had another big storm, power goes out but phone service worked. The phone company had installed small solar cells as in your pic on the poles, up high where they are tough to reach. It’s nice to be able to call your mom and tell her you survived!